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U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet cops.usdoj.gov

September 2023

Training Fact Sheet

The COPS Office has a series of requirements for the development and delivery of in-person and online training. These 

requirements can be found in the two COPS Office curriculum guides: (1) Online Curriculum Standards and Review: Process 

Guide at https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/training/Online_Curriculum_Process_Guide.pdf and (2) In-Person Curriculum Standards 

and Review: Process Guide at https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/training/In_Person_Curriculum_Standards_Guide.pdf. The guides 

were established to provide guidance to COPS Office training providers and program managers on instructional design, prom

ising practices, and the process by which the COPS Office will review and approve curricula. The curriculum guides are subject 

to change, and developers should consult them regularly; COPS Office program managers will also make efforts to ensure that 

changes are reported to developers in a timely manner. The memorandum provides guiding principles for the development and 

delivery of training funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Training and training materials developed or delivered 

with funding provided by the COPS Office must adhere 

to the following U.S. Department of Justice training guid

ing principles:

	Trainings must comply with applicable law. In 

developing and conducting in-person or online train

ing, recipients (and any subrecipients) shall not violate 

the Constitution or any federal law, including any law 

prohibiting discrimination.

	The content of trainings and training materi

als must be accurate, appropriately tailored, and 

focused. The content of training programs must be 

accurate, useful to those being trained, and well-matched 

to the program’s stated objectives. Training materials 

used or distributed at trainings must be accurate, rel

evant, and consistent with these guiding principles.

	Trainers must be well qualified in the subject area 

and skilled in presenting it. Trainers must possess 

the subject matter knowledge and the subject-specific 

training experience necessary to meet the objectives of 

the training. In selecting or retaining a trainer, grant

ees (or subgrantees) should consider such factors as the 

trainer’s résumé and written materials, interviews with 

the trainer, observation of other trainings conducted by 

the trainer, feedback from other entities with which the 

trainer has worked, training participant feedback and 

evaluations, and the general reputation of the trainer.

	Trainers must demonstrate the highest standards 

of professionalism. Trainers must comport themselves 

with professionalism. While trainings will necessarily 

entail varying teaching styles, techniques, and degrees of 

formality, as appropriate to the particular training goal, 

professionalism demands that trainers instruct in the 

manner that best communicates the subject matter while 

conveying respect for all.

The COPS Office trainings are national in scope and 

should have a specific law enforcement audience: executives, first-line supervisors, line officers, dispatchers, joint 

community and officers, etc. COPS Office training supports the needs of the law enforcement field and strives to 

increase public safety.

The training goals of the COPS Office are as follows:

	Establish a common process for the development of 

COPS Office training initiatives.

	Manage quality control through a series of review and 

approval checkpoints.

	Standardize content, style, format, and quality.
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	Establish clear outcome expectations of training initiatives.

	Maintain training relevance for the field.

	As appropriate, prepare training for accreditation through 

national law enforcement training accreditation programs.

The COPS Office defines training as the teaching and learn-

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ing activities carried out for the primary purpose of helping 

members of an organization acquire and apply the knowl

edge, skills, abilities, and attitudes needed by a particular 

job or organization. Training is driven by specific goals and 

objectives; it is not a single event but rather an ongoing pro

cess that requires continuous self-reflection and evaluation.

Learning outcomes and objectives. Objectives describe 

what learners should be able to know and do after training. 

Learning outcomes establish the criteria by which the train

ing will be judged a success. Training objectives and learning 

outcomes should be aligned with an employee’s position 

and with the organization’s goals and mission.

Self-reflection and evaluation. Self-reflection should be 

a conscious process whereby trainees critically analyze the 

training materials and test their own understanding and 

retention; it is an internal check on the progress and out

comes of the training. Evaluation is the external check; it 

should consist of setting goals in accordance with the learn

ing outcomes and objectives and conducting pre- and posttraining testing and a final course evaluation to ensure those 

goals are met. If a course meets all other standards but lacks 

a pre- and post-training testing mechanism, it is considered 

a ‘resource,’ rather than a training. A resource should only 

be developed in lieu of a training if required by the solicitation or upon approval from the COPS Office.

Training materials. Guides, webinars, articles, conference 

presentations, podcasts, videos, blogs, and newsfeeds (to 

provide a few examples) can serve as support material in 

trainings or as standalone materials to increase knowledge, 

but on their own they cannot be defined as training.

The COPS Office also has a series of requirements that instructors must meet prior to becoming instructors for COPS 

Office courses and for the duration of their instructor tenure. 

Those requirements can be found in the COPS Office’s 

Instructor Quality Assurance Guide at https://cops.usdoj.

gov/pdf/training/Instructor_Quality_Assurance_Guide.pdf.

Online trainings can be found on the COPS Office Training 

Portal at https://copstrainingportal.org.

Training Fact Sheet

September 2023

For questions related to the development and 

delivery of in-person or online training or for 

more information about COPS Office programs 

and resources, please contact the COPS Office 

Response Center at AskCOPSRC@usdoj.gov or 

800-421-6770 or visit the COPS Office website at 

https://cops.usdoj.gov.

Contact the COPS Office